is there anything that can't be spray painted?

It is hard to even begin to list all the things in our house we have spray painted the last 8 years - everything from furniture, bathroom fixtures, photo frames and a fireplace screen. I have even read of some who spray paint doorknobs!

I wanted to share my recent finds and accomplishments. Even though I write with a sore shoulder from all the sanding and spray painting...


A couple weeks ago I purchased an old, black arm chair. I have a thing for interesting antique (looking) chairs. So much so that I need to stop as I really have no other places to use them. However, I could not pass this one up that I found at an estate sale. I fell in love with the natural rubbings on the arms and front rungs. Not to mention how hard it is find arm chairs! However, the seat was quite a mess and I was not so sure what to do with it.

Today I worked on sanding down the seat, and a few other areas that needed some attention. When D got home, he convinced me to just spray paint. So, I taped up the arms and front rungs to keep their natural distressing. There were a few spots I had to fill in with wood filler, then I used two coats of flat black spray paint. Next I took some sandpaper and distressed the other areas. Here is the finished product, although I am thinking about making a chair cushion too. We will see...



I have been struggling for months about what to do with all my long fashion necklaces. They were being stored in a drawer in my lingerie chest and it seems every time I want to wear one, I spend 10 minutes trying to untangle it from others. It suddenly hit me to make a board where I can hang them on the wall. The next step was to find something large and cute to use as a frame

The large gold frame in the picture above was it! It was another estate sale find, and at $5 (with no glass) I could not pass it up. I stripped and sanded as much as possible, then primed with spray primer and finished with a coat of a slightly off-white can of 50 cent oops paint. To complete the Shabby Chic look, I distressed it lightly. Then I spent two hours working to untangle everything so they could be hung.



The little blue box in the above picture is a circa 1960 train/make-up case. I had found it at an antique store with a price of $17. I had gone to another store across the hallway to find a similar case for $34. Really? double the price? I went back to the first store to have another look and that is when I spotted the $6 markdown sticker. SOLD! I plan to use this with some other vintage suitcases I have found in the last couple years.


In my stops at Goodwill, I also found these two little candle holders for a total $3. The white one is pretty cute as is, but I bought it with the intention of spray painting it silver. The already silver candlestick needed a good scrubbing to get rid of all the wax dripping.


Here they are, ready for display, along with a $2 flame less candle on clearance at Marhsalls/Homegoods.



Although Halloween has come and gone, I wanted to share my cute little skull from Goodwill. It was not in great shape and the paint was peeling off, but it was the perfect little guy to paint a nice glossy black - especially since it was a steal at only $1. After painting him, I thought about maybe doing it in silver for a Terminator look. Maybe next year....



Finally, I decided to jump on the bandwagon of making your own cake stands. While I have been collecting antique plates I would like to use, I needed something to test it out. These $.70 plates (from Homegoods) and $.20 cordial glasses (from thrift store) were the perfect trial. I got a $3 tube of Duco Cement to hold it all together. A day later and here is the finished product...(they are not attached to each other, just gently stacked)